A load control device may control the amount of power delivered to an electrical load. Load control devices include, for example, lighting control devices (such as wall-mounted dimmer switches and plug-in lamp dimmers), motor control devices (for motor loads), temperature control devices, motorized window treatments, sensor devices, and remote controls. In FIG. 1, a typical residential environment 10 may include lighting load controls 12, 16, 18. 20, 22, 26, 32, 34, and 38, motorized window treatments 20, 24, and 30, smart thermostats 28 and 36, and the like. The various load control devices, remote control devices, and/or sensor devices may communicate with the home Wi-Fi router 14.
The load control devices, sensors, and remote control devices may control the lights, smart thermostats, and/or the motorized window treatments in the typical residential (or commercial) environment. Typically, a load control device may be coupled in a series electrical connection between an alternating-current (AC) power source and the electrical load to control the power delivered from the AC power source to the electrical load.
Some load control devices are operable to transmit and receive wireless signals, such as radio-frequency (RF) or infrared (IR) signals, to thus provide for wireless control of the corresponding loads. One example of an RF lighting control system is disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,442, issued May 18, 1999, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AND DETERMINING THE STATUS OF ELECTRICAL DEVICES FROM REMOTE LOCATIONS, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
As load control devices become more sophisticated and complex, they may benefit from more frequent reconfiguration and software updating. Such operations benefit from relatively high bandwidth wireless communications and are relatively agnostic to network latency. High bandwidth capable protocols (e.g. Wi-Fi) may be suitable for this kind of data. Examples of Wi-Fi-enabled load control devices include those described in commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 13/538,555, filed Jun. 29, 2012, titled “LOAD CONTROL DEVICE HAVING INTERNET CONNECTIVITY, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, for all purposes.
By contrast, operational communications, such as on/off/dimming commands and sensor status, for load control devices benefit from high reliability and relatively low latency. These communications are generally short and generally would not benefit from higher bandwidth wireless technologies.
In light of these competing tradeoffs, a load control device would benefit from a communications system that provides bandwidth, reliability, and latency appropriate for both configuration and operational communications.